← Water H04-05 · Module 5 of 7 · Pages: 19 · Worksheets: 6

Ponds and keeping water in the soil

How to stop rain on your land: swales on contour, a rain garden, humus and mulch, and a pond that holds water, is safe for children and won't burst its bank

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Ponds and keeping water in the soil

In short

  • The order is always slow it, spread it, sink it: humus and mulch first, then swales on contour, then the pond.
  • A swale has a level bottom on contour and a safe spillway. Without a spillway the first cloudburst breaks through.
  • Don't hold water in the soil on unstable or clay slopes above a house: you can trigger a landslip.
  • In summer a pond loses 3–7 mm of water a day to evaporation (less in Ireland and Scotland): for a 100 m² pond that is 300–700 L a day.
  • A child can drown in 20 cm (8 in) of water. A fence, gentle banks and a way out are compulsory.

What's inside

Chapters

  1. Soil is the biggest tank
  2. Where water flows on your land
  3. Swales on contour
  4. Rain garden and soakaway by the house
  5. Pond or wildlife pond: what it's for
  6. Building a pond step by step
  7. Safety: children, livestock, mosquitoes
  8. Water losses and maintenance
  9. Most common mistakes
  10. Printable checklist

Worksheets

  • Pond volume calculator
  • Summer loss calculator
  • Water-holding test and pond log
  • Water map of the homestead
  • Water retention calendar
  • Work plan and costs

Fields and checkboxes can be filled in with Adobe Acrobat Reader (desktop and mobile), and the calculator adds up by itself. Filling in may not work in some browsers. A print version comes with the screen PDF.

This guide in other languages:

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